Mayweather: Pacquiao has to beat Marquez & Bradley before I’ll fight him

By Chris Williams: Floyd Mayweather Jr. gave Manny Pacquiao a tiny ray of hope by saying in an interview with ESPN that he’ll fight the Filipino IF he can beat both Juan Manuel Marquez and Tim Bradley, two fighters that recently beat Pacquiao in back to back fights.

Mayweather says he’ll entertain the idea of fighting him if he can get past both guys, and that’s a big if because we’ve already see Marquez handle Pacquiao well in the last three of their fights, and you can say Marquez should have won all four of them.

Mayweather said to ESPN “First, Manny Pacquiao has to get past Marquez, a fighter I beat with ease. I mean, that was one of my easiest fights. Manny Pacquiao still has Tim Bradley problems, he still has Marquez problems. First Manny Pacquiao has to get past those guys, then he can step inside the lion’ den with Floyd Mayweather.”

What Mayweather didn’t mention is that Pacquiao also would likely have to take the smaller cut of the revenue for a fight to take place. Pacquiao isn’t going to be able to get a 50-50 deal with Mayweather with Pacquiao having all those recent losses on his resume and with his lower pay per view numbers compared to Mayweather.

I don’t know that a 55-45 deal would get it now. It might take a 60-40 and above for Mayweather to agree to fight the Filipino, and you could really understand his point of view in asking for the money. Pacquiao was just knocked out cold by Marquez, and that’s a fighter that Mayweather easily beat four years ago when Marquez was fighting at a higher level than he is now.

I don’t think the odds are good for a Mayweather-Pacquiao fight taking place because if Mayweather is serious about Pacquiao having to get past Marquez and Bradley first before he’ll fight him, then that’s probably not going to happen. Marquez has had Pacquiao’s number in all four fights, and we don’t know yet if Pacquiao’s chin is the same after he was knocked unconscious by Marquez last December.

Pacquiao will have to take some vicious shots from Marquez for 12 rounds, and we saw that Pacquiao was having problems handling his power. A fifth fight between them may see Pacquiao taking an even quicker exit if Marquez tests his chin early.

Mayweather has a fight coming up on May 4th against Robert Guerrero in Las Vegas, Nevada, and after that Mayweather will possibly be facing Saul Alvarez. Pacquiao just isn’t in his plans.